Siamese Cat Picture Feedback

Janet has sent me her painting of the Siamese Cat which is one of our workshop packs and has asked for my comments. Janet admits to being a little heavy handed when using the pencils and fears that this is the reason it appears so much darker than my original. On the whole I feel that Janet has done a good job and I am sure that her friends and family were impressed even though she has pointed out that she missed out the whiskers.The main point I would like to raise is one Janet herself had seen that is the lack of contrast. Both of the above pictures were done on the sand coloured Ingres pastel paper and the same colours were used. The key to this is to use the brighter colours such as white, ivory, pink etc generously to cover the sand colour of the pastel paper before the stronger colours are applied. I also suspect that perhaps there was an over application of lighter colours underneath the dark colours, this would result in the stronger colours appearing dull. I am shortly going to be videoing this cat as a mini project soon so I can show you exactly how it’s done, this is a brilliant subject to show off the technique of ‘contrast’.The area below the face could be strengthened slightly as this would separate the neck and emphasise the head turning, see black arrow.The area between the top of the head and the back ear also needs attention, at the moment white has been added over the top of the dark colour and this has resulted in the dark colour showing through, see white arrow. I would suggest that this is erased and redone.I would also suggest that the line of the back running from the face is too long and can be shortened and faded out as mine does, see red line.